The bank was founded in 1944,[3] and its corporate headquarters is located in Montreal. BDC has more than 123 business centres across Canada and 60,000 clients.[4] BDC's debt obligations, secured by the Government of Canada, are issued to public and private sector institutions.

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The bank was established by an Act of Parliament[5] as the Industrial Development Bank (IDB) in September 1944. IDB was initially an arm of the Bank of Canada, and the Governor of the Bank was also Chief Executive Officer of the IDB. During its first years, the bank's main role was to help small "industrial enterprises" convert from military production to peacetime operations after the Second World War.[6] IDB was one of the first and largest development banks in the world.[6]

The Industrial Development Bank Act was first amended in 1952 to allow the bank to offer financing to companies in the commercial airlines industry. By the mid-1950s, one out of every 10 planes in Canada was financed by IDB.[6] Later, the Industrial Development Bank Act was amended two more times to allow the bank to lend to companies in almost all industries.

By 1964, twenty years after its foundation, IDB had 22 branches across Canada, covering main cities such as Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver, and it also had operations in relatively rural areas. In the mid-1970s, the bank added consulting and training to its financial offerings to help entrepreneurs better manage their businesses.[7]

In 1975, the name of the bank changed to Federal Business Development Bank (FBDB), and its venture capital operations were started. At the time, the bank was known as "a lender of last resort"—supporting businesses in difficulty.[8]

BDC is financially self-sustaining.[10] Since 1998, it has been profitable and paid a total of more than $746 million in dividends to its sole shareholder, the Government of Canada.[11]
Every ten years, the Minister of Industry must conduct a review of the provisions and operations of the BDC Act. The last legislative review was completed in December 2014.[12]

BDC is a complementary lender, offering commercial loans and investments that fill out or complete services available from private-sector financial institutions. It also provides advice to businesses through its advisory services division.[18]

Small Business Week[19] is an annual celebration of entrepreneurs and their contribution to Canadian society. A wide range of activities is held across the country during the third week of October. Small Business Week was launched by BDC in 1979 and became a nationwide event in 1981.[20]

BDC was named among Canada's Top 100 employers[21] every year between 2007 and 2018.

BDC Capital won multiple CVCA "Deal of the Year Award" for the venture capital category. It won in 2011, for its investment in Radian6 Technologies Inc.;[22] in 2012, for its investment in Q1 Labs Inc.;[23] and again in 2014, for its investment in Layer 7 Technologies.[24]